1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to conveyors and more particularly to a conveyor for automatically feeding fence picket stock by gravity into the upwardly open throat of an elongated fence picket pointing machine.
For continuous operation of the above named fence picket pointing machine it is necessary that the picket stock be sequentially fed into the picket pointing machine in sequence with the operation thereof.
This invention provides a conveyor which automatically picks up, in sequence, horizontal layers of picket stock and feeds the picket stock by gravity, one at a time, into the fence picket pointing machine from a bundle of picket stock deposited within the confines of the conveyor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior patents generally disclose a hopper or a platform receiving a plurality of picket fence forming members manually placed in the hopper or stacked on the platform forming a part of or adjacent a fence picket pointing machine in which the picket forming members are sequentially moved into position for processing by the picket pointing machine.
This invention is distinctive over prior art patents by providing a conveyor which receives a multilayered bundle of picket stock and lifts the horizontal layers of picket stock, as units, in sequence from the bundle and deposits them on a horizontal platform having a reciprocating portion moving the picket stock layer toward and into the picket pointing machine in sequence with the operation thereof,